Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080209417 | Method and system of project management and task collaboration over instant messenger - A method and apparatus for allowing for the exchange of tasks, over an instant messenger (“IM”) infrastructure, are disclosed. An IM application, running on an electronic device, may allow creation, assigning, tracking, viewing, exporting, importing and managing tasks. IM applications may include, but not be limited to, stand-alone applications, browser plug-ins, on-screen widgets and gadgets, PDA and cellular phone modules, server-sided applications rendered on a client machine, etc. Personal Information Management (“PIM”) applications may use IM infrastructures to exchange of tasks or task information. Project management applications (“PMA”) may be used to define projects, containing tasks with complex sets of rules and inter-dependencies, and leverage IM networks for disseminating these projects and tasks among users. Tasks exchanged on an IM network may be imported into PMAs and PIMs. Tasks may be exchanged in a peer-to-peer IM network, which may span multiple IM service providers. Tasks may be transported in XML data structures which may contain data pertaining to users for whom tasks are intended, the progress made on tasks, documents attached to tasks, etc. User roles and privileges may be defined within tasks structures such that some users are the assignees of a task, while other users may only view task progress and be notified of milestones as tasks are worked on. Users may create task groups and communities, allowing them to control who may assign tasks to members of the group. | 08-28-2008 |
20080250109 | Method and system for tracking time over instant messenger - A method and apparatus for allowing the tracking the starting, ending and duration of instant messenger (“IM”) interactions, are disclosed. An IM application, running on an electronic device, may provide functionality to capture the duration and history of an interaction between users over an IM infrastructure. The IM application may regulate an interactive session (“session”) over IM, capturing a users' explicit agreement to engage in a session, the user's pausing and ending of the session, and the history of the session (text, voice, files etc. exchanged between the parties as part of the IM session). In addition, monetary rate may be associated with a session and a monetary charge, associated with the monetary rate and session duration, may be captured, confirmed, reported and/or billed. The record of an IM session may be synchronized among users' IM applications and exported to other applications or for storage. Tracking IM sessions may be made a part of IM client applications, may be part of a module which may be associated with one or more IM client applications, or may be a part of applications and devices capable of exchanging messages over an IM infrastructure. | 10-09-2008 |
20090100342 | Method and system for presenting address and mapping information - A method and apparatus for mapping address information (e.g. locations denoted by name or address, street addresses, landmarks, etc.) off of disparate sources and onto new or existing maps, are disclosed. A mapping component (e.g. a standalone application, a web-browser plug-in, an ActiveX control, a DLL, a COM object, a web object, a part of a an application displaying and/or generating maps, etc.) running on an electronic device (e.g. personal computer, workstation, thin client, PDA, cellular phone, GPS device, etc.) may receive input of address information and relay the received input to a mapping application (e.g. an online mapping service such as Google Maps®, Yahoo! Maps®, Windows Live Search Maps®, MapQuest®, etc.; or a mapping application running locally on a PDA, cell phone, etc.) for plotting on a common map, displayed by a map-display application (e.g. a browser, a web user agent, etc.). A mapping component may have a permanent visibility to the user (e.g. by being a top-most application in a windowed environment, by being present in a portion of the user's desktop that is commonly unobstructed by other applications such as the system tray, by being a widget, by being a control on a browser toolbar, etc.) A mapping component may be a module of a display application. A mapping component may receive user input directly, for example by typing; and/or via the clipboard, for example via a drag-and-drop or copy/paste operation or a pre-determined key combination; and/or via the use of context menus; and/or by any other means supported by the electronic device. A mapping component may aggregate multiple received address information prior to relaying the aggregated address information to a mapping application and/or a map-display application. A mapping component may parse, or otherwise process the location data prior to relaying the location data to a mapping application and/or a map-display application. The user may select an existing map for receiving the input; or, the optimal map for displaying the address information may be selected automatically; or, a mapping service may associate the user with stored maps and select the optimal map for receiving the address information. | 04-16-2009 |
20090198767 | Method and system for associating content with map zoom function - Various methods, systems and apparatus for displaying content associated with a point-of-interest (“POI”) in a digital mapping system, are disclosed. One such method may include detecting a change in the zoom level of an electronic map displayed on a computing device, determining if the new zoom-level is at a pre-determined zoom level (e.g. at maximum zoom), identifying a POI on the map, retrieving content associated with the POI (“POI content”) and displaying the POI content. The method may further include detecting a change in the zoom, or pan, of the digital map while POI content is displayed, and removing the POI content in response. One apparatus, according to aspects of the present invention, may include means of detecting a change in the zoom level in a digital map displayed through an application (e.g. a web browser, an application on web-enabled cellular phones, etc., displaying a map generated by a service such as Google Maps®, Yahoo! Maps®, Windows Live Search Maps®, MapQuest®, etc.) on a computing device (e.g. personal computer, workstation, thin client, PDA, cellular phone/smart phone, GPS device, etc.) means of identifying a POI at the pre-determined zoom level, means of obtaining content associated with the POI, and means of displaying the POI content. POI content may be retrieved from a database (e.g. internet-based database); or, in an alternate embodiment, gathered by crawling websites associated with the POI. In one embodiment, POI content may be displayed as an image (e.g. a PNG file, GIF, Flash® component, etc.) superimposed on the digital map (e.g. as an overlay object on the map image.) In alternate embodiments, POI content may replace the digital map and may contain links to other content. | 08-06-2009 |
20090265464 | System and method for alerting on open file-share sessions assosciated with a device - A method and system for detecting an active file-share session on a monitored device associated with a client device, alerting the user of the client device, and enabling them to terminate the file-share session, are disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and system, when a remote device (e.g., on a network, the internet, etc.) connects to a shared file or folder on a monitored device (e.g., a personal computer, network area storage, a game console, a storage area network, a smart telephone, etc.) the user of the client device receives an immediate, automatic alert with the specifics of the file-sharing session and data affected. The user is then presented with an option of whether to OK the file-sharing session (i.e. allow data access to proceed), or to disconnect the file-share session (i.e. cause the remote user to lose access to the monitored device's shared data). | 10-22-2009 |
20090281719 | Method and system for displaying social networking navigation information - A mapping system associated with a social network includes determining that a social networking map object (“MO”) is outside a visible area of a map displayed; calculating the direction, distance and travel-time to the MO (e.g. a social network member, a location, a meeting place, etc.), creating an object vector indicator (“OVI”) and displaying the OVI on a map-display application. The OVI may be displayed on the periphery of the displayed map and may be positioned in the general direction of the MO. The position of the electronic device, as well as a current position of the MO, are factored into the calculations and placement of the OVI. The OVI may include a graphical representation, obtained from the social network, of the MO it references. | 11-12-2009 |
20090281720 | Method and system for displaying navigation information on an electronic map - A mapping systems includes determining that a map object (“MO”) is outside the visible area of a map displayed; calculating the direction, distance and travel-time to the MO, creating an object vector indicator (“OVI”) and displaying the OVI on the map-display application. The OVI may be displayed on the periphery of the map-display and may be positioned in the general direction of the MO. The position of the electronic device is factored into the calculations and placement of the OVI. | 11-12-2009 |
20090328173 | Method and system for securing online identities - Various methods, systems and apparatus for associating fictitious user identities (e.g. screen names, user names, handles, etc.) used in electronic communications (e.g. over the internet via instant messenger, e-mail, social networks, eCommerce and auction websites, etc.) with real personal information (e.g. the true identity of an individual such as their name, address, credit score, driving record, etc.) are disclosed. One such method may include storing real personal information, associated with fictitious user identities, in a CGI, hosted by a GICS. The CGI may be a unique record for an individual person and may contain real personal information verified with proper authorities (e.g. a name, address and driving record of the individual verified with a department of motor vehicles), as well as fictitious user identities used by the individual, feedback receiving from other users, etc. The method may further include allowing a remote user to submit a query to the GICS requesting information associated with a fictitious user identity, whereby the GICS may search for a CGI associating information with the fictitious user identity; and, transmit some or all of the information to the remote user. One apparatus, according to aspects of the present invention, may include means of associating real personal information, submitted by a user, with fictitious user identities, means of verifying the real personal information and the ownership of the real personal information by the submitting user, means of receiving a request for some personal information associated with a fictitious user identity, from a remote user, means for identifying the CGI associated with the fictitious user identity, means of retrieving some of the personal information from the CGI and means of transmitting some of the information to the remote user. The system may further include means of limiting the information transmitted to the remote user. (e.g. the remote user may be transmitted the credit score of the person owning a fictitious screen name, without being transmitted any further information identifying the person.) | 12-31-2009 |
20100076989 | Method and system for displaying email thread information - A method and apparatus for discerning and displaying an email-thread chart of senders and recipients (“senders/recipients”) included in an email thread, are disclosed. The email-thread chart may include the senders/recipients arranged in chronological order matching the order in which individual related emails, included in the email thread, were sent and received (the sending/receiving of related emails is hereinafter referred to as “transactions”). The email-thread chart may further include the date-and-time-stamp of the transactions and the labeling of the transactions by transaction type (e.g. “Cced”, “forwarded”, “replied”, etc.) The senders/recipients may be discerned from the body of the email. The body of the email may contain quoted text containing the email thread. The email-thread chart may be displayed automatically in response to a user's attempt to send the email to a remote user, or in automatic response to any other user action. The email-thread chart may include a graphical user interface (“GUI”) and may allow the user to select one of the senders/recipients displayed, and to perform numerous functions related to the selected senders/recipients (e.g. delete all references to the selected sender/recipient from the email thread, etc.) | 03-25-2010 |
20100146436 | Displaying content associated with electronic mapping systems - Various methods, systems and apparatus for displaying content associated with a point-of-interest (“POI”) in a digital mapping system, are disclosed. One such method may include detecting a change in the zoom level of an electronic map displayed on a computing device, determining if the new zoom-level is at a pre-determined zoom level (e.g. at maximum zoom), identifying a POI on the map, retrieving content associated with the POI (“POI content”) and displaying the POI content. A POI may be a specific point of interest; or, an entire geographic region of a map displayed at a high zoom level. The method may further include detecting a change in the zoom, or pan, of the digital map while POI content is displayed, and removing or repositioning the POI content in response. One apparatus, according to aspects of the present invention, may include means of detecting a change in the zoom level in a digital map displayed through an application (e.g. a web browser, an application on web-enabled cellular phones, etc., displaying a map generated by a service such as Google Maps®, Yahoo! Maps®, Windows Live Search Maps®, MapQuest®, etc.) on a computing device (e.g. personal computer, workstation, thin client, PDA, cellular phone/smart phone, GPS device, etc.) means of identifying a POI at the pre-determined zoom level, means of obtaining content associated with the POI, and means of displaying the POI content. POI content may be retrieved from a database (e.g. internet-based database); or, in an alternate embodiment, gathered by crawling websites associated with the POI. In one embodiment, POI content may be displayed as an image (e.g a PNG file, GIF, Flash® component, etc.) superimposed on the digital map (e.g. as an overlay object on the map image.) In alternate embodiments, POI content may replace the digital map and may contain links to other content. | 06-10-2010 |
20100259560 | Enhancing privacy by affecting the screen of a computing device - A method and apparatus for allowing the user of an electronic device to enhance privacy over a display with the use of software, are disclosed. A security window including a translucent graphical effects region may be displayed on the electronic device such that it overlays content the user may choose to protect. The security window allows the protected content to remain discernable for the user of the device yet substantially indiscernible to a person at a further distance and/or greater viewing angle from the screen of the device. The user may control the size, shape, texture, translucency level and any other graphical or behavioral properties of the security window and graphical effects region. The user may invoke or terminate a security window with the single click of a button. Security windows may automatically attach to applications in focus, or be attached in response to a user command, and allow uninterrupted usability of those applications. Security windows may be associated with application types and may automatically be invoked in response to running processes associated with the application types. Security windows may be associated with email (e.g. displayed by a productivity application such as Microsoft Outlook®, or via any browser-based service such as GMail®, etc.) causing security windows to be automatically displayed in response to displaying emails that meet various criteria (e.g. from a specific sender, containing specific words, containing tags associated with security windows, etc.) | 10-14-2010 |
20100275266 | Automatically enhancing computing privacy by affecting the screen of a computing device - A method of providing visual security enhancements to electronic data displayed on a display associated with an electronic device, comprising: defining privacy criteria; defining two physical states for operation of the display, wherein the first physical state includes displaying graphical output from the electronic device in a manner that is highly discernible to a viewer; and wherein the second physical state includes displaying the graphical output in a manner that is not highly discernable to the viewer; | 10-28-2010 |
20110055702 | Document revisions in a collaborative computing environment - In a collaborative computing environment, a method and system for displaying revisions associated with a hosted electronic document are disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and system, select revisions of an electronic document may be displayed to a user as media (e.g. Flash™ animation, QuickTime™, MPEG, Windows™ Media Video, RealMedia™, DivX™, DHTML, etc.) in which the revisions are animated, recreating a visual history play-back of the evolution of the document. The animation may include an image of each selected revision, morphing into another image of another revision. The animation may be displayed in various orders (e.g. chronologically, by user, etc.) The user may use an application on a client device (e.g. a web-browser, a web-browser with a media plug-in, a media players, etc.) to view the media file and control various properties of the animation playback (e.g. speed, direction, pausing, skipping forward or back, etc.) | 03-03-2011 |
20110153186 | Digital maps displaying search-resulting points-of-interest in user delimited regions - A method, system and apparatus for displaying points-of-interest (“POIs”) on a digital map are disclosed. One such method includes: presenting a digital map on a graphical display of an electronic device, wherein the digital map comprises map tiles and corresponds to a geographic region; receiving free-hand user input selecting a portion of the digital map; delimiting the portion of the digital map selected by the user; determining one or more of the POIs whose geographic coordinates are within the portion of the digital map selected by the user; and displaying a graphic for each of the determined POIs, wherein the displayed graphic is displayed on the digital map at the geographic coordinates of each of the determined one or more POIs. | 06-23-2011 |
20110264370 | Method and system for displaying navigation information and mapping content on an electronic map - A method for displaying object vector indicators (“OVI”) and mapping-media content, referencing map-objects (“MO”) on an electronic map, the method including determining that at least one MO is outside a visible area of a displayed map, creating an OVI to reference the MO, displaying the OVI on the electronic map, receiving user input selecting the OVI, retrieving media-content associated with the MO and displaying the media-content. In various embodiments, the OVI may contain various navigation information referencing the OVI; the OVI may be displayed at the periphery of the displayed map; the OVI may be repositioned in response to a changing in position of an electronic device displaying the OVI and/or the MO, etc. | 10-27-2011 |
20120042394 | System and method for alerting on open file-share sessions associated with a device - A method and system for detecting an active file-share session on a monitored device associated with a client device, alerting the user of the client device, and enabling them to terminate the file-share session, are disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and system, when a remote device (e.g., on a network, the internet, etc.) connects to a shared file or folder on a monitored device (e.g., a personal computer, network area storage, a game console, a storage area network, a smart telephone, etc.) the user of the client device receives an immediate, automatic alert with the specifics of the file-sharing session and data affected. The user is then presented with an option of whether to OK the file-sharing session (i.e. allow data access to proceed), or to disconnect the file-share session (i.e. cause the remote user to lose access to the monitored device's shared data). | 02-16-2012 |
20120233137 | Presentation of document history in a web browsing application - In a collaborative computing environment, a method and system for displaying revisions associated with a hosted electronic document are disclosed. In accordance with the disclosed method and system, select revisions of an electronic document may be displayed to a user, recreating a visual history play-back of the evolution of the electronic document. The electronic document may be displayed in a web-browsing application, utilizing a Document Object Model (“DOM”) retrieving the select revisions via Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (“AJAX”) calls to a remote device/server. | 09-13-2012 |